When the Lion Feeds Quotes

“Play the game without mercy, play to win”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“When a traveller gets a thorn in his foot,’ Mbejane went on softly, ‘and he is wise he plucks it out – and he is a fool who leaves it and says “I will keep this thorn to prick me so that I will always remember the road upon which I have travelled.” Nkosi, it is better to remember with pleasure than with pain.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“Something always dies when the lion feeds – and yet there is meat for those that follow him.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“„Ако сълзите могат да изплатят нашите грехове, бих плакал, за да купя опрощение за всички твои мъки в бъдещия ти живот, ако можех сега да изплача всичко вместо теб, бих плакал, докато изтекат очите ми.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“She was a new world - a place of endless mysteries and unexpected delights, an enchanting mixture of woman and child. She supervised the domestic routine with deceptive lack of fuss. With her there, suddenly his clothes were clean and had their full complement of buttons; the stew of boots and books and unwashed socks in his wagon vanished. There were fresh bread and fruit preserves on the table; Kandhla's eternal grilled steaks gave way to a variety of dishes. Each day she showed a new accomplishment. She could ride astride, though Sean had to turn his back when she mounted and dismounted. She cut Sean's hair and made as good a job of it as his barber in Johannesburg. She had a medicine chest in her wagon from which she produced remedies for every ailing man or beast in the company. She handled a rifle like a man and could strip and clean Sean's Mannlicher. She helped him load cartridges, measuring the charges with a practised eye. She could discuss birth and procreation with a clinical objectivity and a minute later blush when she looked at him that way. She was as stubborn as a mule, haughty when it suited her, serene and inscrutable at times and at others a little girl. She would push a handful of grass down the back of his shirt and run for him to chase her, giggle for minutes at a secret thought, play long imaginative games in which the dogs were her children and she talked to them and answered for them. Sometimes she was so naive that Sean thought she was joking until he remembered how young she was. She could drive him from happiness to spitting anger and back again within the space of an hour. But, once he had won her confidence and she knew that he would play to the rules, she responded to his caresses with a violence that startled them both. Sean was completely absorbed in her. She was the most wonderful thing he had ever found and, best of all, he could talk to her.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“Then she looked at his eyes and her panic smoothed away. With those eyes watching over her she was never to feel frightened again, not until the very end and that was a long time away. Going into his love was like going into a castle, a thick-walled place. A safe place where no one else could enter. The first feeling of it was so strong that she could only stand quietly and let the warmth wrap her.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“This was where time began: it was a quiet river”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds: The book that started it all

“Emotion was so damned elusive: as soon as you cornered it”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds: The book that started it all

“together.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds: The book that started it all

“I don’t think any single experience is enough to change a person’s way of thinking. It’s like building a wall brick by brick. You add to it a little at a time until at last it’s finished. I’ve told you before, Sean, that you have a strength in you. I think one day you’ll finish building your wall – and when you do, it will have no weak spots.’ 28”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds: The book that started it all

“People are important. They are more important than gold or places or – or anything.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“It was like explaining colour to a blind man, describing the lust of the hunter to someone who was born without it. Duff listened in agonized silence as Sean tried to find the words for the excitement that makes a man's blood sing through his body, that heightens his senses and allows him to lose himself in an emotion as old as the urge to mate. Sean tried to show him how the nobler and more beautiful was the quarry, the stronger was the compulsion to hunt and hill it, that it had no conscious cruelty in it but was rather an expression of love: a fierce possessive love. A devouring love that needed the complete and irrevocable act of death for its consummation. By destroying something, a man could have it always as his own: selfish perhaps, but then instinct knows no ethics. It was all very clear to Sean, so much a part of him that he had never tried to voice it before and now he stumbled over the words, gesticulating in helpless inarticulateness, repeating himself, coming at last to the end and knowing by the look on Duff's face that he had failed to show it to him.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“They smiled at each other and leaned back against the rock face behind them. They watched their wagons, far below them, coil into the tight circle of the laager and the cattle turned free move out to graze. The sun sank and the shadows stretched out longer and longer across the land. At last they went down the hill and found their horses. That night they stayed later than usual next to the fire and though they talked little there was the old feeling between them again. They had discovered a new reef that was rich with the precious elements of space and time. Out here there was more of those two treasures than a man could use in a dozen lifetimes. Space to move, to ride or to fire a rifle; space spread with sunlight and wind, grass and trees, but not filled with them. There was also time. This was where time began: it was a quiet river, moving but not changed by movement; draw on it as much as you would and still it was always full.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“There was also a feeling of release. That was another part of it. To go on his way: north to a new land. He felt the tingle of anticipation. 'Not a whore or a stock broker within 500 miles,' he said aloud and grinned. He gave up trying to find words for his feeling. Emotion was so damned elusive: as soon as you cornered it, it changed its shape and the net of words which you had ready to throw over it was no longer suitable. He let it go free to range through his body, accepting and enjoying it. He ran down the stairs, out through the kitchens and into the stableyard.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“We send for him, laddie, we make him come to us. We play him on the home ground.'
'How does that help?' Sean asked.
'It gives us an advantage immediately - it makes him remember that he's the one doing the asking.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“And so their partnership crystallized; their relationship was established over the weeks that followed. Duff with his magic tongue and his charming, lopsided grin was the one who negotiated, who poured the oil on the storm waters churned up by impatient creditors. He was the storehouse of mining knowledge which Sean tapped daily, he was the conceiver of schemes, some wild, others brilliant. But his fleeting nervous energy was not designed to bring them to fruition. He lost interest quickly and it was Sean who finally rejected the least likely Charleywood brain children and adopted the others that were more deserving; once he had made himself stepfather to them he reared them as though they were his own. Duff was the theorist, Sean the practician.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“You're tired. Sleep well tonight and tomorrow we'll see how far this reef runs - then we'll start some scheming.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“One story deserves another”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds

“Candella Rautenbach.”
― Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds: The book that started it all